shinypixel.co.uk » YouTube Excursions

Swamp Thing

Rik — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:27:03 +0000

The first full-length CD album I bought was The Grid’s Evolver. A lifetime appreciation for the inappropriate juxtaposition of banjos against loud synth stabs was born.

The Grid – Swamp Thing

(I) Can, Can (You?)

Rik — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:55:06 +0000

The glorious silliness of having the Can Can played by Vanessa-Mae with a 4/4 beat and a slew of samples lobbed on top is only matched by my desire to find the time to re-edit this into something even sillier. I can’t believe it’s taken me about 15 years to notice this even existed.

Islands

Rik — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:02:44 +0000

It may not be that warm outside, but this sublime, floaty remix of The XX by Delorean will mean it’s summer in your head, at least:

The XX – Islands [Delorean Remix]

Better Than A Dream

Rik — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:34:38 +0000

Hands up who remembers The Dreamstone? You know, that one with the green bearded lion things, a floating dog/fish hybrid, some Urpneys and the overall air of folksy fantasia? If that’s brought back fond memories, you’ll be as pleased as me to hear that the cracking soundtrack is available to buy, including the closing theme that we all know so well:

Mike Batt – Better Than A Dream

(Bonus fact: It’s quite surprising that Mike Batt sang the theme tune to The Wombles. Not as surprising as the news that they’re playing at Glastonbury this year, though.)

Only Sleeping

Rik — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 01:19:07 +0000

Been a bit quiet around these parts lately. So let’s puncture that silence with a couple of excellent tunes containing mouth-organs.

Sorry, did you need a reason?

Psychemagik – Whoopin’ The Booze

Lemon Interupt – Bigmouth

(You all remember who Lemon Interupt became, don’t you? Hint: It’s Underworld)

Rock Out With Your Mock Out

Rik — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:01:50 +0000

Afternoon. (That was going to be “morning” but my website mysteriously disappeared for a while.)

In need of some big hair, loud guitars, and a good laugh, I found myself on YouTube this morning. There I found this excellent little ditty which is vaguely reminiscent of some things I once knew. Not sure if you’ll remember them. Something to do with royalty…

Rock Sugar – We Will Kickstart Your Rhapsody

Timber

Rik — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:35:41 +0000

Oh, hello there. What’s that? You’d like something interesting to listen to on this breezy Tuesday afternoon? Well, young scamp, you’ve come to the right place.

Has it really been nearly fifteen years since this was produced? Lawks. This old-timer was too busy complaining about tedious house and trying to avoid grunge at the time, thus discovering this sometime in the following millennium. Still, a classic piece of AV that everyone should have in their life:

Coldcut & Hexstatic – Timber

Lollipop

Rik — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:09:32 +0000

[14:59] Rik Ward: I’m in a field
[14:59] Rik Ward: There are trees
[14:59] Rik Ward: I am drinking cider
[14:59] Rik Ward: A hamper of triangular sandwiches is close by
[14:59] Rik Ward: Everything is orange

Monsieur Minimal – Lollipop

No Regrets

Rik — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:24:16 +0000

I occasionally go through spates of listening to The Walker Brothers, usually after they pop up on the Radio 2 playlist and are quickly promoted to my stereo on rotation.

However, one thing I didn’t know until moments ago was that Midge Ure covered No Regrets. It sounds exactly how you’d expect it to:

Midge Ure – No Regrets

The Walker Brothers – No Regrets

We Play The Pipe

Rik — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:21:32 +0000

Disco Rapido – We Play The Pipe

“Will Pipe For Food” claim this silly duo who seem to be confusing the populace of a Northern town centre with an irritatingly catchy Eurocheese slice aimed squarely at the contintental dancefloor. A suspected Ricardo Autobahn production.

File under “so bad it’s good” and “why am I listening to this for the 17th time?”

Rumbly and Exciting

Rik — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:42:44 +0000

…is exactly how I describe this epic piece of haunting dubstep-lite thwobbing that Treblekicker punted my way the other day. It’s hovered around the top of my Most Played list ever since.

It sounds a bit like being in an abandoned cathedral with a broken torch would feel at 2:35am after 11 cans of Red Bull. If that interests you, you should press Play below.

Von Haze – Outsyde Tha Nite (White Car Edit) [Salem Remix]

You’re No Fun Any More

Rik — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:19:54 +0000

I wonder sometimes, I really do. Now, I know that the sample-driven, electronic music world is a self-feeding monster and all that, but I didn’t expect to see this crop up:

Dani L. Mebius – Synth ‘n’ Strings

Sadly, this update of the Yomanda classic left me wanting. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad – if it turned up in a club I’d no doubt be jumping. However, I remember the original slice of dubious late-90s trance with intense fondness as a bona-fide Northamptonshire Anthem, so it’s inextricably connected with the heady days of my yoof that I’ll never recapture. I suppose I just wish that this re-rub had kept a little more of the unabashed silliness of those halcyon days the original.

But that’s because I’m old, and you get like that, unfortunately. It’s nice to see this having an outing again on plastic. (Damn kids.)

Rik’s Christmas Countdown: No. 16

Rik — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 23:17:54 +0000

The Christmas Countdown had to have a few days off with an Xmas party season hangover… (You try blogging from Hyde Park in the pitch black, anyway.) But! It’s back now until Xmas Day!

Bing Crosby – White Christmas

…and we return with another classic oldie at No. 16. I still love these. This type of tune has a timeless warmth and charm, and listening to it is a little like slipping into a warm, comfortable bath.

Not one for dancing at some trendy bar, but rather one to quietly reflect, misty-eyed, watching the snow fall outside through the window of a Working Men’s Club.

Nice Beaver

Rik — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:03:42 +0000

To mark the passing of uniquely excellent mirthster Leslie Nielsen, I’d like to bring to your attention perhaps the only tune on Earth that samples him.

Ricardo Autobahn’s TV/film samplefest The Golden Age Of Video features a certain Mr. Drebin at 2:06. All together now…

Ricardo Autobahn – The Golden Age Of Video

Auf Wiedersehen, Monty

Rik — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:31:50 +0000

…and so it was that the end of yesterday in the office was distracted by musical reminders of a gentler time. Somehow, a discussion about Mauro Picotto morphed into a long moment reliving the glorious AY era of ZX Spectrum in-game music. Magicland Dizzy was a great start, forever lodged in my brain after younger Rik spent countless hours failing to solve elementary logic puzzles in an “ultimate cartoon adventure”. Pretending you’re an egg whose friends all begin with D has never been so much fun since.

The real surprise, though, came in this fan remix of the seminal Auf Wiedersehen Monty theme. Fanmixes are generally patchy at best – I should really post up my hilariously variable collection of Bubble Bobble ones, for instance – and so to find careful production and sensitive treatment was a turn up for the books. Not perfect, but it’s certainly listenable.

Sadly, the YouTube version seems a bit muffled, but you can download it for free from kwed.org.

Rob Hubbard & Ben Daglish – Auf Wiedersehen, Monty [XOR Remix]

Baker Street

Rik — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:46:46 +0000

Yes, I know that it’s a Pete Waterman job. And I know that it’s arguably ruining a well-loved, classic song. But I still have a soft spot for this after it popped up on a Now! 23 album that I purchased from Warwick Uni’s one-and-only Vinyl Geezer™.

So, for better for worse, it’s…

Undercover – Baker Street

Mancry

Rik — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:56:48 +0000

One of the many things I love about music – and always return to once tired of an artist, genre, or era – is that there’s always another piece out there, somewhere, which is surprising and beautiful enough to rekindle that fire, and make me sit up and take notice again. One did just that tonight, so I thought I’d share.

It’s a bit old – from last year – but Adam Freeland’s Mancry nevertheless demanded my attention via the (extremely pleasant) Gui Boratto remix during a progressive house podcast. It sports one of those refrains that spurs a distant memory, then lodges in your consciousness until you track down the source. That I did, and here it is:

Adam Freeland – Mancry

It’s uncomplicated, perhaps even sparse, but there’s a certain sense of yearning in the swelling atmospherics that keeps me coming back. Clearly the Black Eyed Peas liked it too, as they promptly sampled it, ruining it in the process by yapping about parties or something over the top. That aside, it’s stirring stuff to keep the autumn at bay.

The Ukes of Hazzard

Rik — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:14:30 +0000

“There aren’t enough ukuleles on this blog.” A thought that you, dear reader, have no doubt encountered while wending your way ‘twixt the fertile Shinypixel gardens. The recent feature on an earnest web engineer extolling the virtues of a styling language may even have prompted it.

It indeed prompted me to dredge back through the last decade, to seek out a couple of US comedians from the turn of the millennium whose twangy comedic pop tickled fresh-faced Uni youngster Rik back in 2002. The Ukes of Hazzard caused a minor Internet sensation with their unique take on traditional relationship problems; their trick – singing wonkily atop the enthusiastic rattling of ukeleles – surpassed the desired randomness quotas of early web users and Warwick students alike.

The video sealed the deal. Produced on a shoestring, with reams of digital production and a whole lot of love, it’s been viewed over 2 million times, which for something predating the YouTube generation by such a long chalk is quite an achievement:

The Ukes of Hazzard – Gay Boyfriend

Those were the days.

As a bizarre footnote, a UK CD single release popped up sometime around the death of pop music in 2004. Autotuned and cruelly stripped of folksy instrumentation, its cookie-cutter bubblegum pop faded quickly out of the dying charts and into obscurity. I picked up a copy in Oxfam on Portobello Road – I’m not overly surprised that no-one bought it.

(I’m out of ukelele-based anecdotes now. I promise.)

Just For Money

Rik — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:35:43 +0000

If I said to you “Paul Hardcastle”, then you’d probably reply “Who?” or “N-n-n-n-nineteen” and look quite pleased with yourself. If you were to be feeling particularly smug, you might mention the shocking cricket-based cover version of 19 by Rory Bremner.

It’s a bit of a shame that that’s all people seem to remember of Paul Hardcastle. Many years ago I possessed a second-hand Smash Hits tape which had been half taped-over by its previous owner, obliterating Big Fun in favour of various mixes of Hardcastle’s latest singles. Alongside 19 was Just For Money, this excellent synth track which my naive mind assumed contained samples of Del Boy & Rodney. After IDing and tracking it down on 12″ many years later, I was surprised to find that the actual samples are (in order of incredulity) Hardcastle himself, Bob Hoskins, and Laurence Olivier.

Worth a listen.

Paul Hardcastle (feat. Bob Hoskins & Laurence Olivier) – Just For Money

There May Be Glory Ahead

Rik — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:24:50 +0000

There’s a World Cup on, y’know. I approve of this particular World Cup song because – among other things – it contains brass, silly moustaches, ukuleles and a kazoo.

Dulwich Ukelele Club – There May Be Glory Ahead

(via The Londonist)

Your Music Is Killing Me

Rik — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:33:57 +0000

Not what most people say when they see my record collection, but instead an oldish album title track by The Young Punx. Appearing in video form on their free “digital boxset”, Get To Know The Young Punx, it showcases their genre-hopping style and has a corking Q*Bert-inspired video. Today’s pick, then.

The Young Punx – Your Music Is Killing Me

If You Do, I Do Too

Rik — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:32:41 +0000

There’s a lot of music out there – I dredge through hours of podcasts, on average, every day. Occasionally one track pops up and makes me grin from ear to ear from start to finish. If You Do, I Do is one of those, discovered via The Young Punx podcast late on a Friday while glaring at some errant code after a week in the office.

What could be better – or more unexpected – than a Japanese, slightly-too-fast, scratch-filled, electro-house reworking of Pomp and Circumstance (also known as Land of Hope and Glory to you ‘orrible lot)? Answers on a postcard, but only after you’ve been struck agog by what Armand Van Helden’s Koochy would sound like if it gatecrashed the Last Night of the Proms.

Fantastic Plastic Machine – If You Do, I Do

The Great Fashionista Swindle

Rik — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:19:08 +0000

Loads to say but not much time to do so, sadly. Most of my plans for this week have fallen through, mind you, so I might get the chance to exude some prose. In the meantime, here’s an excellent tune from a couple of years back which has been gracing the N900 a lot recently:

Dada Life – The Great Fashionista Swindle

This is the original mix – not the (worse) Laidback Luke mix that everyone claims is the original (but isn’t.)

As an aside, here’s what’s been keeping me up all night by rebounding around my head like a squash court:

Edward Hill – Indeed I Am Very Glad To Be Back Home

Aaaaarrgh!

Encore Une Fois

Rik — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:55:32 +0000

I discovered this embarrassing-but-danceable slice on the Funky London podcast last week and it kept me humming all weekend. A pop-house rehash of Sash!’s ancient Mysterious Times replacing the original’s miserable overtones with a lot more fun. Maybe the 90s were worth something after all..

Sash! – Mysterious Times (Spencer & Hill remix)

Puttin’ On The Ritz

Rik — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:02:25 +0000

I may well have posted this before, but since I’m actually going to the Ritz today, here’s a YouTube video of Taco’s excellent synthy cover of Puttin’ On The Ritz from sometime back in the 80s…

Taco – Puttin’ On The Ritz